Individual awards are no real antidotes to winning medals with your team but they can help a little. Conor McManus agrees with that sentiment and he has got a double lift after Monaghan’s loss to Dublin in the Allianz NFL Division One semi-final.

It was a brave bid by the Farney fellows to give Dublin a dose of the blues, at Croke Park, but it fell just short – certainly no fault of the Clontibret man who terrorised the Dubs’ defence and landed eight great points. Three or four different players failed to curb his wiles with double and treble teaming having no effect, either.

It was a rare occasion when a player on the losing team was presented with the ‘Man of the Match’ award but, in all fairness, no-one else was anywhere near that status. Now the fleet-footed corner-forward is in the spotlight, again

John Campbell, UGAAWA, Terry Fay, Quinn Products, and John P Graham, Vice-Chairman UGAAWA make the presentation to Conor.

Conor with parents Frank and Mary.

Despite all the action that happened during the month of April,from the NFL semi-final at the beginning, CONOR McMANUS’ five-star performance was nowhere near overshadowed and he wins the Quinn Products Ulster GAA Writers’ Merit Award for April 2015.

“Winning medals with your team is surely the main object but it is also great to be acknowledged individually. I was very disappointed at losing to Dublin but this award makes up greatly for that,” said Conor (27).

“When you look at the names of the people who have won this monthly award, down the years, it proves how special it is. I am very honoured to get this award and it, surely, helps to erase the memory of the defeat by Dublin.

“We must now put that behind us and look forward to the Ulster Championship in a few weeks’ time. This is a great boost to get on with the work.”

The Business and Development manager with Servisource has quite a collection of medals to date and won an Ulster Club Minor Football Trophy with Clontibret as a 14-year-old in 2002. Since then he has collected five Monaghan SFC and four SFL medals, two minor and two U21 awards with his club, while with Monaghan he has won an Ulster SFC award plus Division 3 and Division 2 medals, since making his senior county debut against Roscommon in 2008.

McManus out-pointed current Tyrone U21s Lee Brennan and Padráig Hampsey for the April award with a number of Armagh players also in the running following their NFL Division Three victory.

Conor with father, Frank, on left and on right is a good friend, former Chairman and wonderful GAA volunteer and sponsor, Colm Gormley of Gormley uPVC products.

Clontibret O’Neills club officials at the presentation to Conor from left - Frank McManus, Secretary; Aiden Deighan, Chairman; Colm Gormley, Delegate to Coiste and Ciaran Lavelle, Club development.

The presentation of an engraved Belleek Living vase, specially hand crafted silver cuff links from Carlingford Design House and training gear from O’Neill’s Sportswear was made to Conor by Quinn Products area manager Terry Fay at a function in the Clontibret GAC headquarters on May 4. He will also receive two tickets and overnight accommodation for the annual banquet in the Great Northern Hotel, Bundoran, on November 13.

Conor pictured with a young player who would hope to emulate Conor’s contribution to the GAA